A Missed Opportunity

Abstract

In 1959, Austria had the opportunity to establish Vienna as a place for advanced training in empirical social sciences due to the initiative of ex-Austrian Paul F. Lazarsfeld who managed to persuade the Ford Foundation to give a grant for such an endeavor. However, the Austrians did not like this proposal and wasted four years quarreling about who should profit from the American gift. In 1963 an institute opened which is still around: the Institute for Advanced Studies/ Institut für Höhere Studien (IHS).